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(RT) An Occupy Wall Street activist was acquitted of assaulting a police officer and other charges on Thursday after jurors were presented with video evidence that directly contradicted the NYPD’s story.

Michael Premo was found innocent of all charges this week in regards to a case that stems from a December 17, 2011 Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan. For over a year, prosecutors working on behalf of the New York Police Department have insisted that Premo, a known artist and activist, tackled an NYPD officer during a protest and in doing so inflicted enough damage to break a bone.

During court proceedings this week, Premo’s attorney presented a video that showed officers charging into the defendant unprovoked. The Village Voicereports that jurors deliberated for several hours on Thursday and then elected to find Premo not guilty on all counts, which included a felony charge of assaulting an officer of the law.

Since his arrest, supporters of Premo have insisted on his innocence. “They’re trying to make something out of nothing and they’re trying to charge him with something that didn’t actually occur,” colleague Rachel Falcone told Free Speech Radio News this week.

After being arrested, the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office presented Premo with a deal that would have let him off the hook by pleading guilty to lesser charges. Maintaining his innocence, however, he was determined to fight the case in court.

Premo was “facing serious charges and potential substantial jail sentence, even though he never should have been arrested at all,” his supporters claimed in a post published on The Laundromat Project website.

Nick Pinto of the Village Voice says he was nearby during the December 2011 rally and recalls watching Premo’s arrest from a distance. In his report from court this week, Pinto explains how the details provided by the NYPD in this trial have been fabricated to such a degree that the allegations presented by the cops turned out to be literally the opposite of what occurred.

“Premo charged the police like a linebacker, taking out a lieutenant and resisting arrest so forcefully that he fractured an officer’s bone. That’s the story prosecutors told in Premo’s trial, and it’s the general story his arresting officer testified to under oath as well,” Pinto writes. He adds that attorneys for the defendant underwent a lengthy search to try and find video that verified their own account yjpihj, and found one in the hands of Democracy Now. “Far from showing Premo tackling a police officer,” writes Pinto, that video “shows cops tackling him as he attempted to get back on his feet.”

The footage obtained from Democracy Now also showed that an NYPD officer was filming the arrest as well, but prosecutors told Premo’s attorney that no such footage existed.

“There is no justice in the American justice system, but you can sometimes find it in a jury,” Premo tweeted after he was acquitted this week.

In an interview given to NBC in 2012, Premo identified himself as a spokesperson for the Occupy Wall Street movement. He has also led an initiative in the New York area that have provided relief to those that endured last year’s Superstorm Sandy and has also advocated for fair housing.

“The biggest thing for me coming out of this,” he told the Voice, “is not being discouraged by the attempts of New York City to quell dissent and prevent us from expressing our constitutional rights.”

On Tuesday, NYPD arrested six individuals who ran OWS’ Globalrevolution.tv. According to law enforcement, the place where the individuals inhabited was “imminently perilous to life” and was a threat to the inhabitant’s health. Some say health concerns aren’t the real issues and claim NYPD tactics are changing and they are now targeting individuals. Goldie, OWS activist, gives us his take on the website shutdown and why he refuses to use his last name.

Last weekend – patriots with the movement attempted to set up a new occupation in New York City – near Trinity Church – one of the oldest churches in the city. But that effort was blocked – when the church refused to give sanctuary to the movement – and the NYPD moved in. Bishop Packard and his wife Brook Packard – who were also on hand for last week’s demonstrations, and were arrested and beaten.

On the afternoon of December 1st, 2011, Jackson Browne and Dawes played an acoustic set in solidarity with the occupiers at Liberty Square. Prior to his set, Browne announced that “We’re here to express our solidarity and stand with the occupiers.”

‘I Am A Patriot’ lyrics:

And the river opens for the righteousSomeday

I was walking with my brotherAnd he wondered what’s on my mindI said what I believe in my soulAin’t what I see with my eyesAnd we can’t turn our backs this time

I am a patriotAnd I love my countyBecause my country is all I knowI want to be with my familyThe people who understand meI’ve got nowhere else to go

And the river opens for the righteousAnd the river opens for the righteousAnd the river opens for the righteousSomeday

And I was talking with my sisterShe looked so fineI said, “Baby, what’s on your mind?”She said, “I want to run like the lionReleased from the cagesReleased from the ragesBurning in my heart tonight.”

And I ain’t no communistAnd I ain’t no capitalistAnd I ain’t no socialistAnd I ain’t no imperialistAnd I ain’t no democratAnd I ain’t no republicanI only know one partyAnd it is freedom

I am, I am, I amI am a patriotAnd I love my countryBecause my county is all I know

And the river opens for the righteousAnd the river opens for the righteousAnd the river opens for the righteousSomeday

Occupy Wall Street protestors were cleared out of Zuccotti Park, but Now they are working in an office right next to Wall Street. The Movement hasn’t changed, it has just gained a clearer focus. Help us grow, or hide and watch!

After several months of protests at Occupy Wall Street camps all over the U.S. and hundreds of arrests, We take a look at some of the increasingly militarized tactics the police have been using against American citizens.

The Occupy Movement has inspired many songs…. this is one of the most creative.

I first was pepper sprayed
Just standing on the side
But it took me being blinded
to open up up my eyes
Cause I’d read the daily news,
and not responded actively
and I realized then and there
this revolution needed me

So here I am,
camped in a tent
Which is really so convenient
cause I can’t afford my rent
But they came with shields and mace
In the night while it was dark
A NYPD army
Sent to clear Zuccotti Park

We’ll protest on, with catchy phases
We’re going global
From London to Uc Davis
If you think that your batons are going to get us to go home
GO on and hit me, I’ll just upload it from my phone.

Until I die,
I’ll occupy
As long I know how to sit
And hold this heavy sign
cause the 99 is pissed
and we will not BE dismissed
I’ll occupy
I’ll occupy
hell yeah

Call us “hippies” call us “homeless,”
yeah we’re fed it.
And we “don’t know what we want,”
to our discredit.
But if you’re reading all the news, funded by the corporations
Its no mystery
How you’ve missed our declaration

We will not go! Bring on the snow!
Got your faceless cooperate body
One peaceful badass foe
We’re awake, we saw Wall-e, and you know we’re organized
Did you think we’d crumble?
Did you think we’d lay down and not try?

Until I die,
I’ll occupy
As long I know how to sit
And hold this heavy sign
cause the 99 is pissed
and we will not be dismissed
I’ll occupy
I’ll occupy
HELL yeah
HELL yeah!

We’re off our Meds, we’re watching Ted
And we’re into Zombie culture,
But we’re not the walking dead
If you want to fight for justice join the masses, we are strong
And it wouldn’t hurt to take a
minute to repost this song!

Until we die,
We’ll occupy
As long we know how to sit
And hold these heavy sign
cause the 99 is pissed
and we will not be dismissed
We’ll occupy
We’ll occupy
HELL yea

Members of the press have been harassed, assaulted and ever arrested for covering the Occupy Wall Street movement. Since the movement began a total of 26 reporters have found themselves behind bars. Thirteen of the26 reporters were arrested last week in New York City. Is freedom of the press a thing of the past? Susie Cagle, independent journalist, tells us what it was like to get arrested for covering the Occupy movement.